Left: medicinal Oyster plant Right: ornamental Oyster plant
The medicinal Oyster plant is beneficial for sore throat, coughing and body cooling. Slow boil for few hours. A lazy way is to boil it in a croak pot/ slow cooker on high setting once back from work in the evening and turn the power off before going for bed. A luke warm oyster plant tea will be waiting for you first thing in the morning.
Boil with yellow rock sugar, add other herbs like jasmine, pandan leaves, chrysanthemum, etc if so desired. I have no idea if the herbal mixture will turn poisonous but so far so good... phew!
However, the latex/sap of the Oyster plant IS poisonous, so avoid skin contact during pruning/harvesting/handling. Is ok to handle after thoroughly boiled. Don't ask me why. Unripe tomato is poisonous. Ripe tomato is yummy. It just is.
And don't mix up the medicinal Oyster plant with the ornamental Oyster plant. Looks alike at first glance. The pictures are taken at the same time with the same camera and light exposure.
Oyster plant is not too particular with soil medium but loves a good dose of organic compost every forthnight or so. Forgiving if you forgot to water them for a couple of hot sunny days. Propagates by seed or side shoots. Have a pretty deep root system. Root system will envelope the entire pot given time. A shallow 6~8" pot will do. I have one planted in a 4" pot and doing well :)
Ground planting can be invasive due to propagation by seed nature and also the far reaching rooting system.
Thrives both under shade and full sun.
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